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Irish Invitational Preview

SOUTH BEND, Ind. —Notre Dame hosts its third consecutive season-opening tournament this weekend as Milwaukee, Mississippi State, and Texas Tech head to South Bend for the Irish Invitational. The Irish meet Texas Tech on Friday, Aug. 26 at 7 p.m. ET before taking on Mississippi State on Saturday, Aug. 27 at 5 p.m. ET and Milwaukee on Sunday, Aug. 28 at 2 p.m. ET. All Irish matches this weekend will be streamed live via ACC Network Extra.

2022 Irish Invitational
Friday, August 26 – Milwaukee vs. Mississippi State- 4:30 p.m. ET (Live Stats)
Friday, August 26 – Notre Dame vs. Texas Tech – 7 p.m. ET (ACC Network Extra/Live Stats)
Saturday, August 27 – Texas Tech vs. Milwaukee 12 p.m. ET (Live Stats)
Saturday, August 27 – Notre Dame vs. Mississippi State – 5 p.m. ET (ACC Network Extra/Live Stats)
Saturday, August 28 – Notre Dame vs. Milwaukee – 2 p.m. ET (ACC Network Extra/Live Stats)

Notre Dame Notes (PDF)

HISTORY VS. TEXAS TECH

  • Friday will be the first ever meeting between the Irish and the Red Raiders.
  • The Red Raiders are coming off of a 17-13 season after falling to Florida Gulf Coast in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

HISTORY VS. MISSISSIPPI STATE

  • This will be just the second matchup in program history between the Irish and the Bulldogs, with Notre Dame owning a 1-0 advantage over Mississippi State.
  • Notre Dame defeated the Bulldogs in four sets on Sept. 11, 2015 in Purcell Pavilion.

HISTORY VS. MILWAUKEE

  • The Irish and the Panthers are both looking to take series lead as it’s currently tied at 2-2.
  • Notre Dame fell to the Panthers in four sets at home last season on Sept. 4, 2021 in the Shamrock Invitational.
  • Prior to last season’s matchup, the last game between the Irish and Panthers was on Aug. 30, 2002, where Notre Dame defeated Milwaukee in three sets. 

IRISH RETURNERS

  • The Irish return a pair of rising sophomores, a trio of rising juniors, and two rising seniors.
  • Sophomores Phyona Schrader and Paris Thompson played in a combined 49 sets last season. Schrader played in 42 sets and dished out 55 assists for the Irish.
  • Junior Hattie Monson played in all 103 sets last year as a defensive specialist and the primary libero for the Irish while also leading the team with 407 digs and finishing amongst the top five in the ACC for digs per set (3.96).
  • Junior Lauren Tarnoff returns after playing in 60 sets and recording 79 kills for the Irish. Junior Charity McDowell returns for her third season at Notre Dame after appearing in two sets last season.
  • Senior Nancy Kane appeared in 44 sets last season, earning 14 aces and recording 17 digs for the Irish. Senior Kiara Okenla (Schmidt) returns after playing in 86 sets as a defensive specialist, tallying 109 digs and 10 service aces last year.

MEET THE NEWCOMERS

  • Three graduate transfers join the Irish this season. Kaylyn Winkler joins from SMU, Clare Delaplane comes from Villanova, and Maddy Waumans joins from Marist.
  • Winkler led the AAC with a .348 hitting percentage her senior year and was selected to Second Team All-Conference last season. She also finished with a team-high 114 blocks on the season and hit double-digit kills in seven matches
  • Delaplane appeared in 309 sets (89 matches) while at Villanova and recorded 600 kills, 662 digs and 100 blocks throughout her four-year career. She recorded four double-digit kill performances and seven double-digit dig performances throughout her senior season.
  • Waumans played in 19 matches, appearing in 73 sets, and totaled 189 kills, 190 digs and 18 blocks, 13 service aces and nine assists. She matched a career-high 18 kills and set a career-high 13 digs against Rider in her senior season.
  • Six freshmen also join the Irish this season. Freshmen additions include Maisie Alexander, Avery Ross, Cailey Dockery, Harmony Sample, Lucy Trump, and Bella Tehrani.
  • Alexander was a two-time All-State honoree and led her team to a state runner-up finish 2021.
  • Ross was named Volleyball District Player of the Year and earned over 1,500 career kills and led the state with 597 kills during her senior season.
  • Dockery was selected to Second Team All-State her senior year and led her team to a state semi-final appearance.
  • Sample was named an Under Armor All-American, earned pre-season and mid-season All-American honors from prepvolleyball.com, and was selected to the All-Tournament Team at the USAV National Championships.
  • Trump was a four-year All-State honoree, a three-time NKGVCA
  • Division I Player of the Year selection, was named the top ranked recruit in Kentucky by PrepDig, and was selected as KVCA Miss Kentucky Volleyball in 2021. She also tallied 1,993 career kills, 1,057 digs, 179 blocks and 205 aces.
  • Tehrani was a member of Team Canada’s U18 Team and also competed with the Provincial Team Ontario Black U18 Team. 

THE BEGINNING OF THE ROCKWELL ERA

  • Salima Rockwell (Davidson), a four-time national champion coach and three-time All-American, is the seventh head coach in Notre Dame volleyball history.
  • For the past three years, Rockwell has served as a color commentator for ESPN, Fox Sports, Big Ten Network and CBS Sports.
  • Rockwell spent nine years coaching at her alma mater, Penn State University, holding titles of associate head coach, assistant coach and director of operations over two different stints in Happy Valley (2006-2009 and 2015-17).
  • As a student-athlete, Rockwell was a three-time All-American setter, was named to the NCAA Championship All-Tournament team, helped guide the Nittany Lions to an NCAA Championship runner-up finish, was four-time All-Big Ten honoree, and led Penn State to Big Ten championships in 1992 and 1993.
  • Between her two coaching tours at Penn State, Rockwell also spent five seasons (2009-2013) at the University of Texas. While in Austin, she helped lead the Longhorns to the 2012 National Championship title, its first in almost 25 years.

MEET THE STAFF

  • Rockwell added Sara Matthews and Craig Dyer to her staff as associate head coaches for the Irish. Lauren Plum was also added as a volunteer assistant coach, Paul Koncir joined as a video and data analytics technical coordinator, and Mackenzie Keenan is the operations specialist for the Irish.
  • Matthews, a standout player at James Madison and Kansas, comes to South Bend after spending the past five seasons as the head coach at the University of Delaware.
  • Dyer joins the program after spending the past four seasons at Creighton, with previous stops at Penn State, Pittsburgh, Marquette, Seton Hall and Rutgers. He’s worked with several All-Americans during his time at Creighton and was part of the 2019 BIG EAST Coaching Staff of the Year.
  • Plum joins Notre Dame staff after spending time as an assistant coach at the University of Arizona and Villanova University. Before coaching in the college ranks she played overseas for 6 years from 2014-2020 in France, Germany and Puerto Rico. She was also an All-American setter at Oregon where she helped lead the Ducks to a National Championship in 2012.
  • Koncir joins the Notre Dame Volleyball family after spending the past two seasons with the Michigan State Spartans as an associate head coach. Prior to MSU, Koncir had spent eight seasons with Indiana.
  • Keenan joins the program after spending nearly the past seven seasons at Texas Christian University. She worked as the TCU volleyball director of volleyball operations after having spent time as the volleyball graduate assistant.